Free Republic

President Trump’s trip to meet with GOP Pennsylvania state lawmakers in Gettysburg Wednesday afternoon was abruptly cancelled after it was announced that a second person in close contact with lead campaign attorney Rudy Giuliani the past week has tested positive for the COVID-19 China coronavirus. Campaign advisor Boris Epshteyn posted on Twitter Wednesday morning he was positive and experiencing mild symptoms. A few days ago Giuliani’s son Andrew who works at the White House was reported to be positive for the virus, however Giuliani tested negative after being in contact with his son.

Chinese “military harassment” of Taiwan is stoking suspicions that Beijing will attempt to seize control of the territory before the U.S. military finishes reorienting to stymy such attacks. “It is just a matter of time before things backfire and seriously harm the CCP’s image on the international stage,” Taiwanese cabinet minister Ming-Tong Chen said during a Heritage Foundation webinar Wednesday morning. Beijing’s desire for a good reputation may soon be outweighed by the perceived balance of power off the coasts of China, officials and analysts fear. Former White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster suspects that Chinese officials feel a...

U.S. Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) announced legislation Wednesday aimed to bring mask mandates to the entire U.S., saying that “overwhelming scientific evidence” has shown that masks reduce the spread of Covid-19, which is now taking a grim toll on the country at levels never before seen.-The bill would set aside $5 billion in federal funding that would then be given to states and local governments in the form of grants.-Money would be withheld from states that do not have a mask mandate in place.-Funding would be contingent upon mandates that require face coverings in public, “including...

A lot is known about the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, but many of its details will remain very much shrouded in mystery. This week the action to correct hardware issues that contributed to the crash of a single-engine F-35A Lightning II that was part of the 58th Fighter Squadron, 33rd Fighter Wing in May will remain a secret. The F-35 Joint Program Office announced the decision on Monday. “Explicit details related to corrective actions have the potential to compromise operational security,” a JPO spokeswoman told Air Force magazine, without elaborating. What the JPO did confirm is...

The comments are amazingly ignorant (deliberate?) Dems in comments are saying "that's because Biden was so popular"

....But control was all an illusion. Whether due to seasonality, climate, or luck, New Mexico had avoided the fate of its neighbors. Scientific American pointed out how New Mexico’s COVID testing positivity was at 2.3% while Arizona to the west was at 6.7% and Texas to the east was at 8%. Fast forward to November, and New Mexico was at 12.7%, higher than both Arizona and Texas. As shown in the graph from New Mexico Department of Health, on the day the Scientific American article was published, New Mexico saw one of its best days for COVID hospitalizations. It was...

Does this mean the certification of PA’s results has been reversed? No. Well, I shouldn’t say that; that’s what Democrats say. It’s a separate legal challenge filed by state Republicans. It’s unlikely to reverse the course of what has transpired in the Keystone State this election. Joe Biden was certified the winner. You’re never going to convince me that the election results for 2020 were legitimate, given the scores of voter fraud allegations, but the material that could have been used as evidence has been destroyed. And the bar to toss ballots is higher than Everest, so I doubt this...

My first vanity in all the years I've been a member of FR. Yesterday I took down my Trump flag. It was worn out with only the TR remaining. In it's place I put up AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN flag. For those not familiar, the Appeal to Heaven flag was commissioned by George Washington just prior to the Revolutionary War for the six ships that made up the American navy. The tree on the flag represented opposition to the British prohibition of American citizens cutting down the old growth forest on their lands. The British wanted these trees for use...

Police in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic said a hunter out in a wooded area lost his rifle when a deer hooked the gun with its antlers and ran away with the weapon. Photo by Stevebidmead/Pixabay.com ========================================================================== Nov. 25 (UPI) -- A hunter in the Czech Republic was charged by a deer that snagged the man's gun on its antlers and fled into the woods with the weapon, police said. Police in the South Bohemian Region said a hunter contacted authorities to recount the story of how he lost his gun while hunting near the village of...

The niece of an Illinois mayor is putting her uncle on blast for attending a large wedding in Florida where he was photographed huddled closely with relatives who weren’t wearing face coverings — just days after floating a potential mask mandate in his city. Kristin Chirico, co-host of YouTube’s “The Kitchen and Jorn Show” and a former BuzzFeed personality, publicly criticized her uncle, Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico, for attending his daughter’s nuptials in Naples after a photo purportedly from the affair surfaced on Twitter.

Smartmatic employee Heider Garcia yelled at 10 years ago for 'glitch' in the Philippines. Today, he's been election administrator since 2018 for Tarrant County, TX which found >123,000 more votes for Biden than Clinton 2016 and turned the county blue for the first time since 1960s http://access.tarrantcounty.com/en/elections/meet-the-staff.html

Anthony Fauci says it’s because people are not following his guidance that they ought to be punished by being alone and away from family on the holidays. Go punish yourself, but not us.I reached out via the family group chat on Facebook messenger. I said I wanted to come home to New England for Thanksgiving, I missed my extended family, and asked if anyone would see us. I wrote: “Hey fam, We’d would really like to come to New England for Thanksgiving and see all of your beautiful faces. Would I be welcomed or are we too scared of covid?...

...As conservatives have increasingly rallied for the reopening of our economy, liberals have been the loudest advocates for keeping it closed, no matter the cost. The most harmful aspects of the lockdowns fly in the face of science, making the suffering they cause unnecessary. That they do so knowingly makes the policies cruel as well. Last week, my local food pantry served 884 families. Every week for the past three weeks, it had 100 more families than the week before coming to collect a box of processed food and produce from the county and donations. Before the pandemic, the same...

Excellent hearing happening right now. RSBN gets there early but if you go to around hour 1:04:36 when the first Republican Senator starts.

CNN sought to pull off an incredible double of pro-Biden partisanship on Wednesday morning's New Day. First, by fostering sympathy for the poor guy who may have just been made the most powerful person in the world. Then, somehow transforming his worst traits into wonderful qualities, that his gaffes are actually evidence of "empathy." [snip] CNN White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny engaged in some modern-day alchemy, magically transforming Biden's leaden gaffes into gold. Zeleny: "The country is going to see the person who many in Washington have known for a very long time. He’s steady, he’s measured, he doesn’t always...

Survey data from a March Pew poll indicates that white liberals disproportionately suffer from mental illness. Nearly half of self-identifying white liberals between the ages of 18 and 29 reported telling a doctor or a healthcare provider that they have a mental health condition. Only 20.9% of white conservatives in the same category reported as such. Answers on disclosing mental health conditions varied considerably by race, even in the “very liberal” category of poll respondents. 19% of “very liberal” Americans who didn’t identify as white reported disclosing a mental health condition to a healthcare provider, and a whopping 38% of...

Live on C-SPAN: https://www.c-span.org/video/?478422-1/pennsylvania-republicans-hold-hearing-2020-election&live

CHINA is upping the stakes in the South China Sea region with the deployment of a massive amphibious assault vehicle capable of carrying almost 1,000 troops - with analysts suggesting it significantly enhanced Beijing's military power in the disputed waterway.The South China Sea, which China claims sovereignty of 90 percent of, is regarded as a potential major flashpoint with the West, with Beijing having fortified numerous islands there. The report, published on the website of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, was written by Matthew Funaiole, a Senior Fellow with the think tank's China Power Project, and Joseph Bermudez...

Speaking for progressives, Keith Olbermann says that they want to imprison Trump and every Trump supporter—so many that they’d have to build new buildings or convert Trump’s properties into prisons to fit everyone they want to imprison. pic.twitter.com/tkn2MaiuYM — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) November 25, 2020 Turn Trump Hotels Into Prisons Speaking for progressives, Keith Olbermann says that they want to imprison Trump and every Trump supporter — so many that they’d have to build new buildings or convert Trump’s properties into prisons. Here’s the full segment: VIDEO AT LINK.....................

The Trump administration has rejected a permit for the controversial Pebble Mine in Alaska, likely dealing the project’s final blow even before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.